(Proposal) All things Ieranth - The Hex Lord

[Knight Otu]

I don't think that I can give a yes to this deity yet. The non-standard cleric alignment line that worked so wonderfully for Ayratha is more of a stumper here. He is CE, his clerics can be any Evil, and he provides the Chaos domain.

Home plane isn't that important now, but you could go either Abyss or a demiplane, such as The Tower of the Hexlord.

I'm not sure about the current wording of the Domain power. I think that I understand it now, but it took me a while.

 

[Kahuna Burger]

Here is a suggestion for the revised Doom Domain power which keeps it in tune with what people have been discussing.

DOOM DOMAIN
Granted Power: Once per day, you gain the power of ill fortune. This extraordinary ability, when invoked, allows you to specify that an individual roll made on behalf of a target creature must be rerolled if the die result is successful. The creature must take the result of the reroll, regardless of the original roll. You must state that you will use the ability before the roll is made and whether the original roll was successful or not, you have used your ability for that day.

For example if you cast command on a target you can say, "I command him to drop his sword, invoking my doom domain power to make sure he fails." Then the DM would roll and if successful roll again. Regardless of the outcome for either roll, the dayly use is consumed.

I would perfer this greatly to the current method - simply put, I as a DM should not be trying to keep track of whether the ability has actually been used up or not over the course of a "day" (which in pbp could a week or longer). The old way also gives it too much power over other abilities with uses per day which almost always fall with the caveat "if you try to use it, you used it up whether it was even capable of doing any good or not."

For other issues; Again with the allignment thing. As I understand it, clerics must be within one step of their diety's allignment. This limits a chaotic evil god to followers of C/E, C/N and N/E allignments. I believe (but could easily be wrong on this point) that the allignment of clerics line is meant for further restrictions of allignments, not opening them up. Now, since a cleric can only choose true nuetral if that is his god's allignment, making this god N/E would restrict allignments effectivly to all evil. Generally speaking if he is deeply chaotic as part of his makeup, he shouldn't have lawful clerics, though lawful worshippers are another issue.

The choice of a net as favored weapon is interesting, but since the war domain isn't available, will most of his clerics be able to use one (even if multiclassed)? Seems kinda mean, esp since IIRC there is a cleric spell which summons an empowered form of your dieties favored weapon.... Also, isn't a net a little... er... nice? Sure an intelligent dancing one is creepy, but for the vengeful bastard on the street, he's using the only non violent weapon in the SRD. If you want to be exotic, I'd go with a scourge/cat'o'nine tails. Can still name it spider but it goes really well with the 'punishing your enemies' theme... or a whip daggar named snake.

I'll wait on a final version of the doom domain before voting, but those are my initial thoughts.

Kahuna Burger

 

[Pbartender]

The doom domain needs to be fleshed out and re-written for this deity to be acceptable. If anyone wants to make a doom domain for this, it could be rendered ready to be looked at.

I concur.

 

[Kahuna Burger]

thinking about the doom domain spells as currently listed. On one hand they are all fairly innocous from a mechanics standpoint as they are cleric spells of the same level. On a flavor standpoint several fall down I think.

1 Doom
Well, thats pretty striaghtforward, can't really argue.

2 Darkness
Not so sure about this one, though darkness has an evil flavor, there's nothing super doom-y about it. Possible replacements could include Cause Fear and Hideous Laughter or maybe death knell. Going outside cleric spells, chill touch would work too.

3 Bestow Curse
Again, no argument.

4 Control Water
Can't figure this one at all, while it could have specific applications that might fit, so would almost any spell. Poison might be better, and contagion or enervation would be a great flavor fit.

5 Unhallow
Not perfection, but not bad. Slay living, or symbol of pain are more doomish IMHO.

6 Animate Objects
I don't think this one fits, and its also the 6th level domain spell for the chaos domain (one of the other two this cleric would have). Its fine for more than one domain to have the same spell, but since this domains only placement currently is in a diety with chaos, and it isn't a perfect fit, I'd consider other options. Mass inflict moderate wounds, maybe? Harm? Nightmare has possibilities, and eyebite has a curse/hex feeling.

7 Control Weather
not great, but I can see it, especially when dooming entire towns. Symbol of weakness also has a curse sort of feel.

8 Earthquake
same logic as above and an even better flavor. Maybe symbol of insanity to continue the curse/hex motif.

9 Soul Bind
I'm torn between this and Storm of Vengance, which is a spell of doom if ever I saw one...

I might suggest a complete alternate list later, but I thought I'd start with a more open ended critique.

Kahuna Burger

 

[Sparky]

First, thanks for the feedback. I don't always have proper perspective and it's instructive to hear comments from people whose ideas and judgement I've grown to respect.

The domain would also need spells.

The spell list is above. Though I think I should swap Doom for Bane. Thoughts?

The Doom Ability:
As to the wording of the luck ability... originally this ability was MUCH different. I'm a touch nostalgic for it.

In that ability once per day the Doom priest could enchant a simple mundane object (a coin, a feather, anything really) and by sleight of hand (or tongue) place it on someone. The person carrying this object (a Luck Bane) would have the effects of a Bane spell for their next save/check/attack. It would affect only one action. The effects of the Luck Bane would linger on the object for a day.

I ditched it because I over-complicated the results with a table or somesuch nonsense. I think originally the Luck Bane cast the Bane spell, but I think it would be better if it just affected a single action. What do folks think about a return to this?

The Weapon:
For the vengeful bastard on the street, the plotting that a net implies is perfect... the feats required for its use... not so good. I've envisioned Ieranth as iconically passive aggressive. So net fits that and my preference remains with the net, but I'd be fine with dropping it for something else (whips rule) or choosing a simple weapon if it's a barrier to his approval.

Alignment:
My assessment of alignment is always a little off kilter. His lawful clerics I'd envisioned as ritually superstious bordering on obsessive compulsive. I liked that image... so if anything needs changed it's his alignment or his domains.

What about changing his alignment to NE? That would solve it, and I'd drop the Chaos domain for... how about Evil?

 

[Sparky]

thinking about the doom domain spells as currently listed. On one hand they are all fairly innocous from a mechanics standpoint as they are cleric spells of the same level. On a flavor standpoint several fall down I think.

1 Doom
Well, thats pretty striaghtforward, can't really argue.

2 Darkness
Not so sure about this one, though darkness has an evil flavor, there's nothing super doom-y about it. Possible replacements could include Cause Fear and Hideous Laughter or maybe death knell. Going outside cleric spells, chill touch would work too.

3 Bestow Curse
Again, no argument.

4 Control Water
Can't figure this one at all, while it could have specific applications that might fit, so would almost any spell. Poison might be better, and contagion or enervation would be a great flavor fit.

5 Unhallow
Not perfection, but not bad. Slay living, or symbol of pain are more doomish IMHO.

6 Animate Objects
I don't think this one fits, and its also the 6th level domain spell for the chaos domain (one of the other two this cleric would have). Its fine for more than one domain to have the same spell, but since this domains only placement currently is in a diety with chaos, and it isn't a perfect fit, I'd consider other options. Mass inflict moderate wounds, maybe? Harm? Nightmare has possibilities, and eyebite has a curse/hex feeling.

7 Control Weather
not great, but I can see it, especially when dooming entire towns. Symbol of weakness also has a curse sort of feel.

8 Earthquake
same logic as above and an even better flavor. Maybe symbol of insanity to continue the curse/hex motif.

9 Soul Bind
I'm torn between this and Storm of Vengance, which is a spell of doom if ever I saw one...

I might suggest a complete alternate list later, but I thought I'd start with a more open ended critique.

Kahuna Burger

Cross post ... I like your fourth level suggestions. Though, read the following and with that in mind, reread the list as is.

Ieranth is a much more petty god than a vastly destructive one. He's almost like a jester god gone horribly wrong. Think Loki, but less powerful and bitter about it. Ieranth is a stubbed toe, rain after you wash your car, the flight you missed for bad weather. He's ill Fate rather than Doom properly. Please re-read these with that in mind and think perhaps we should rename the domain Misfortune.

 

[Thomas Hobbes]

As before, I'd stick with standard cleric alignments.

The domain is a work in progress, which means that so is Iernath, to a large degree. Favor-wise, he's great, but there's some touching up needed.

 

[Creamsteak]

One possible way to work the doom domain, instead of forcing a re-roll, a curse that causes a -2 penalty to checks, saves, and attack rolls for 1 round/level would accomplish the same overall goal of reducing an opponents chance of success without forcing unusual declarations.

 

[Sparky]

Works for me.

- Alignment is now NE.
- Cleric alignment is now LE, NE, CE.
- Doom domain ability: Once per day you can curse a single creature's luck. The target suffers -2 to all checks/saves/attack rolls for 1 round per cleric level.

I have this to add to the domain ability: Cursing someone's luck is a standard action and requires a noticable gesture or look. It does not provoke an attack of opportunity.

Since it's just a nasty gesture, maybe it should be a free action. Though, since it significantly affects the target, maybe it should provoke attacks of opportunity. And saves? Any? None?

Should we call the domain Doom or Misfortune?

 

[Creamsteak]

As a free action, range of 60 ft., no save. The Doom or Hex domain seem like solid names.

That's my thought on the matter.